FG To Enforce NERD And Reward Outstanding Participants

The Federal Government has directed all relevant regulatory bodies to align and enforce the Nigeria Education Repository and DataBank (NERD )policy, aimed at building robust internal verification systems in Institutions as well as prioritising continuous digital capacity development.

This is also as it announces establishment of the NERD Annual National Knowledge Prize and Award Programme to reward outstanding undergraduate, master, and doctoral theses with prizes ranging from N5 million to N20 million with the maiden beginning this year.

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa stated this during a one day capacity training for school Representatives on Strengthening institutional Compliance and Academic Records integrity, organised by NERD in Abuja.

Dr Alausa explained
that measures have been put in place to eliminate certificate forgery by aggressively enforcing credential verification to curb disputes over academic records, noting that NERD is a strategic national infrastructure designed to secure, standardise, digitise and authenticate academic records across post-secondary and tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

“within four months of enforcement, the platform had curated nearly 100,000 digital student submissions and onboarded more than 350 universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, and colleges of education for real-time credential verification.
“more than 1,000 digital service centres had been established in collaboration with the Nigerian tech entrepreneurs” he added.

Dr Alausa emphasised that protecting academic certificate integrity was vital for maintaining trust in Nigeria’s education system, adding that certificates represent national guarantees that due process and standards were followed.

Earlier in his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of NERD,
Tunji Ariyomo who explained that the platform established 4 months ago documents academic projects, theses, and dissertations along with supervisors, to co-supervisors, and departmental heads, strengthening accountability and improving the quality of academic supervision has so far enrolled
133,000 students and 6,800 lecturers, supported by more than 655 focal persons nationwide.

Ariyomo added that the platform also addressed copyright and intellectual property issues for students, lecturers, and institutions, ensuring proper recognition and protection of academic work.

‘The government had investigated cases of fraudulent certificates from unaccredited institutions, removing individuals with illegal certificates from public service to uphold accountability.'”

Participants drawn from both private and public institutions across the 36 States of the country including FCT commended the federal government for the initiative and called for practical measures alongside the theory training towards improved service delivery of NERD.

Nkiruka Okeke, Edited By Grace Namiji